As the race to digital transformation speeds up, organizations feel the pressure to keep up with or even lead the pack. Companies embracing technology are disrupting their industries – leaving legacy companies and their workflows in the dust. We’ve seen it in transportation, entertainment, and hospitality with brands like Uber, Netflix, and Airbnb.
Since 2014, ServiceNow has been named as a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant. ServiceNow’s reputation for widespread success across industries and a strong network of service partners make it an excellent choice for enterprises who are starting their digital transformation. But while the path may be clear to you and other forward-thinking IT leaders, these enterprise-wide initiatives are resource-intensive, meaning you also must prove the value of this investment to the C-suite early on.
In this three-part series, we’ll tackle all the things you need to know to prove the value of your digital transformation initiatives. In part 1, we’ll give you points to consider as you determine where to start your transformation. Then once you know where to start, you need to pick an implementation partner. We’ll talk about that in part 2, Choosing the Right Partner.
IT leaders face two hurdles when they sell digital transformation to the C-suite. First, looking beyond solutions to their own problems and envisioning the future-state of how the workplace will function, and second, sharing that vision with leadership.
Typically, enterprise employees come to IT leaders for a solution to a specific problem. And they want their particular problem solved as quickly as possible. IT leaders get bogged down with tactical solutions to specific problems. But be cautious; focusing on the specific problem and the solution can blind you to a broader opportunity to positively impact the organization overall.
Around 80% of Crossfuze’s clients start with ServiceNow for ITSM and leverage a successful implementation to sell the idea of digital transformation to the C-suite.
Why start with IT? The culture of creativity, innovation and transformation drives IT people to do what they do. More than any other department, they understand that nothing is a silver bullet. Mistakes will be made, obstacles will stand in their way, and disruptions will occur. But a typical IT team is agile and risk-averse. They won’t lose their minds if something’s not working right away – they’ll figure out a way to solve it. And once the transformation is complete the IT team takes lessons learned translates them to the rest of the organization.
By starting with IT, you’re working with folks who are excited about technology, receptive to disruption, and nimble enough to learn the new workflows. And at the same time, they’re flexing the skills they’ll need to deliver the same changes more broadly. It’s a low hanging fruit. Use IT as a “proof of concept” and leverage the success in IT to catapult your transformation across the enterprise.
Whether employees realize it or not, IT is the core around which the rest of your organization orbits. Every employee – from the front-line to the back office uses company technology to do their job. Because IT touches every part of your organization, workflows that improve the overall employee experience are hailed as grand achievements; on the other hand, a technology that makes people’s jobs harder can destroy the department’s reputation.
When it’s not working, the repercussions reverberate throughout the organization like a tsunami. The negative impact can be catastrophic. Your reputation and that of the IT department may never recover. Implementing the right technology in the right way will leave an equally positive impression and elevate you and your team to stratospheric levels. Instead of being the geeky crew that no one understands, you’ll be heralded as the superheroes of the enterprise.
The ripple effect is far-reaching. Meeting upstream employee needs with technology delivery behind the scenes helps create a positive customer experience downstream. Keeping the customer happy is key – after all, they’re why you’re in business.
Even if the front-line doesn’t understand everything you and your team are doing behind the scenes, employees will notice happier customers. This makes a successful ITSM implementation the logical starting point for most organizations. Once technology workflows start really working for the entire enterprise, they see IT differently and want more of what IT delivers.
And, once the C-suite sees what the platform delivers, they buy into the whole idea of digital transformation.
C-suite leaders focus on the bottom line. Investments must yield results. ServiceNow for ITSM delivers reports to the C-suite and gives them an in-depth view of what the IT department is doing in real-time – perhaps for the first time ever.
The ServiceNow for ITSM dashboard delivers C-suite leaders a bird’s eye view of the organization. Executives can easily view and compare IT metrics before ServiceNow implementation and after – without sifting through multiple spreadsheets to get the data they need.
Besides that, ServiceNow for ITSM creates workflows that make your job easier, eliminates many administrative processes associated with IT delivery and improves credibility. The larger organization finally feels like technology works. And when people get what they want, they always want more.
Welcome to the 21st century – you’re in the digital transformation game now.
Click here for part two, where we'll take a deep dive into the search for the right implementation partner.
Crossfuze has helped companies in a variety of industries successfully launch their digital transformation through ServiceNow. If you’d like to learn more about how Smart Launch or Crossfuze ManagedNow can help you implement ServiceNow and start your digital transformation, reach out at LetsTalk@crossfuze.com.